Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover's Treasury of Classics and Improvisations

In Jewish Holiday Cooking, Jayne Cohen shares a wide-ranging collection of traditional Jewish recipes, as well as inventive new creations and contemporary variations on the classic dishes.  For home cooks, drawing from the rich traditions of Jewish history when cooking for the holidays can be a daunting task.  Jewish Holiday Cooking comes to the rescue with recipes drawn from Jayne Cohen's first book, The Gefilte Variations -- called an "outstanding debut" by Publisher's Weekly -- as well as over 100 new recipes and information on cooking for the holidays.  More than just a cookbook, this is the definitive guide to celebrating the Jewish holidays.  Cohen provides practical advice and creative suggestions on everything from setting a Seder table with ritual objects to accommodating vegan relatives.  The book is organized around the major Jewish holidays and includes nearly 300 recipes and variations, plus suggested menus tailored to each occasion, all conforming to kosher dietary laws.  Chapters include all eight of the major Jewish holidays -- Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, and Shavuot -- and the book is enlivened throughout with captivating personal reminiscences and tales from Jewish lore as well as nostalgic black and white photography from Cohen's own family history.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments. Introduction. What Is Jewish Food? How to Plan A Jewish Holiday Meal. Notes to the Cook. How to Use This Book. The Jewish Kitchen. Fish. Meats and Poultry. Pantry and Procedures. Matzoh. Schmaltz, Olive Oil, Butter, and Other Fats. Sour Cream, Yogurt Cream, and Labneh.  Wonton Wrappers. Pomegranate Molasses and Temerhindi or Ourt. Salt. Sabbath. Rosh Hashanah. Breaking the Yom Kippur Fast. Sukkot. Shemini Azeret and Simchat Torah. Hanukkah. Purim. Passover. Kosher for Passover. Passover Ingredients. Preparation for Passover. Tips for Planning a Seder Menu. Setting the Seder Table. For Your Vegetarian Son, Your Vegan Niece. What;s for Lunch. Shavuot. A Glossary of Useful Terms. Online and Phone Order Sources And A Few Helpful Web sites.  Selected Bibliography. Index.

About the Author :
Jayne Cohen is the author of one previous book on Jewish cooking and celebrations -- The Gefilte Variations -- and is the co-author of The Ultimate Bar/Bat Mitzvah Celebration Book. She writes frequently about foodfor publications such as Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food& Wine, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and Newsday. Cohen lives in Greenwich Village with her husband, and their daughter Alexandra returns home to cook at every holiday. Visit her Web site at www.JewishHolidayCooking.com

Review :
Part cookbook, part memoir and part how-to, "Jewish Holiday Cooking" could be the one go-to guide for all the Jewish holidays. Jayne Cohen gives the "why" behind their traditions and foods. Her Passover chapter is particularly detailed, tracing the development of the seder over the centuries, defining what "kosher for Passover" means, and giving ideas for planning the seder menu—including a vegetarian seder. Recipes for Passover include braised brisket with 36 garlic cloves and a chicken soup with fennel matzo balls, asparagus and shiitake mushrooms. Cohen is a graceful, informative writer who easily shares her enthusiasm for Jewish holiday cooking with readers. But there's a note of urgency as well. "Jewish cooking is above all bubbe (grandmother) cuisine, and through the meals that we share with our children, it is also our link to the future," she writes. "But unless you continue to update the recipes and create new food traditions, grandmother cuisine will die out when the grandmothers die, when no younger generations are eager to learn to prepare these foods." Sobering words, but this book offers delicious ways to honor traditions old and new.-- Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune Cohen (The Gefilte Variations) celebrates both the variety and spirit of Jewish holidays and the variety of Jewish cooking in this appealing book. Each major holiday throughout the year, from Rosh Hashanah in the fall to Shavuot in early summer, has its own section of recipes, as does the weekly Sabbath; strictly observant Jews as well as those who are not entirely familiar with the religious significance of all the events will appreciate Cohen's detailed comments on their history and meaning at the beginning of each section. Those with less experience in planning big feasts will also be grateful for the variety of menu suggestions that accompany each holiday: Passover seders, a Hanukkah latke party with superb traditional and nontraditional latkes, a vegetarian dinner for Sukkot. Cohen draws on Jewish cuisine from every tradition: Leek Croquettes from Rhodes, stuffed chicken soup from Iran and a pineapple-coconut milk kugel from Bombay are just a few of the pleasantly exotic yet authentic offerings; she also puts new twists on old standards, as with Moroccan-flavored brisket and "deconstructed" kasha varnishkes that feature portobello mushrooms and eggplant in lieu of quantities of fat. Each recipe is helpfully coded to indicate whether it is meat, dairy or pareve, though she often provides variations to accommodate all needs in this book that's enjoyable to read and inspiring to cook from. (Mar.) (Publishers Weekly, December 17, 2007)